In certain surgical procedures such as those using laser and electrocautery devices, smoke and debris are generated from the ablating or burning of tissue. The smoke and debris obscures vision, smells bad, causes contamination and fouling of the surgical and other equipment, and creates smoke and particulate matter which may be breathed by the surgical personnel, an important and discomforting problem in view of the present concerns over the effects of inhaling particulate matter and over contracting AIDS. For these reasons smoke evacuators are used in surgical theaters where fouled air may be generated but they have a number of shortcomings. They are basically vacuum cleaners and so are generally noisy enough to distract or annoy personnel and even drown out conversation and commands. One solution to this problem has been to provide a foot switch which the surgeon can actuate on an as-needed basis. This approach is not all that convenient as in modern operating rooms surgeons are already faced with a number of foot switch actuated devices including the laser or electrocautery device, for example. Another approach is to integrate a smoke evacuator with each smoke or debris generating device, but this is needlessly redundant and adds the further expense and complexity of the electronic logic circuits required to synchronize the operation of the smoke or debris generated instrument and the smoke evacuator.